It is conventional practice to provide a tapered moulded buffer, e.g. of polyurethane, over a length of cable entering or exiting a rigid housing to control the amount of flexing of the cable during deployment of the cable over sheaves and through cable engines on board cable laying ships. Hitherto a common method of providing such tapered buffers has been to apply first to the cable at a short distance from the housing a split collar to form a key for anchoring the buffer against longitudinal slippage on the cable. Next a longitudinal split buffer is placed about the cable and this is clamped to each end. Split buffers are usually secured by a circumferential "jubilee" clip and application of PVC tape. A major disadvantage is that during deployment of the cable bending thereof tends to cause the split buffer to open up along the split between its two clamped ends, thus allowing the cable to bend excessively and to emerge laterally through the split.